You'll need to pace yourself to last the full 12 days of Manchester Food And Drink Festival; you could gorge yourself on Albert Square's street-food stalls alone. Friday adds temptation in the form of a sausage-makers' challenge, plus free masterclasses covering shellfish, cocktails and pastry. With a rolling menu of more than 100 beers, the Big Indie Food Fair and the Town Hall's Big Indie Wine Fest, the second week may just defeat you, in which case enjoy calorie-free live music from local luminaries including I Am Kloot's John Bramwell.

Is vertigo by proxy a possibility? As The World Tipped (Bass Recreation Ground, Fri), Wired Aerial Theatre's fable, goes some way to finding out with bungee-bound performers zipping around a stage that tilts from perilously steep to horrifyingly vertical. There's more off-the-ground drama in Red Shoes (Cathedral Green, 28 Sep), Upswing's fairytale featuring dancers twirling around Chinese poles. The all-day programme also brings Imaginary Friends, Whalley Range All Stars' roving posse of actors and puppets, DJ Yoda's AV show and a Bollywood dance party.

Competitive tattoo display is just one of the events you can enjoy at this festival of "the inked", so you may want to think twice about wearing short sleeves if you only have a crude image of Harry Styles marked on your forearm with fountain-pen ink and school compass. That said, there's plenty of room for originality at this weekend, where top-name tattooists Ami James and Chris Nuñez of Miami Ink will be in attendance. Entertainment is plentiful, with tattooed acrobatic fire-breathing dance troupe the Fuel Girls taking to the stage alongside acts such as Huey And The New Yorkers.

Tobacco Dock, E1, Fri to 29 Sep

IA

Out & about

Great Gorilla Run, London, Sat Very much a Ronseal job, this, as competitors dress up as gorillas and run through the capital.